


Anders - Night

by TheBearMuse



Series: Avalon Aeducan [3]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-23
Updated: 2013-09-23
Packaged: 2017-12-27 10:25:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/977655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBearMuse/pseuds/TheBearMuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anders and Avalon Aeducan have a heart-to-heart on the walls of Vigil's Keep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anders - Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Catchingkatniss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catchingkatniss/gifts).



> Part of my two word prompt series of drabbles. Prompted by Catchingkatniss.

"Maker's breath, kitty! What have you been eating?" Ser Pounce-a-lot mewed up at Anders with big innocent eyes. The mage held his nose with one hand as he picked up the orange and yellow cat with the other. "It better not have been darkspawn."

"Why not?" He hadn't heard Avalon Aeducan approach, despite the quiet of Vigil's Keep at night. "He could join Lancelot as one of the official Warden mascots."

Anders hugged his cat protectively. "Don't mention Ser Pounce in the same breath as that mangy mutt!"

"He's not mangy!" Avalon was usually difficult to read, even on the subject of her elven lover, but when it came to her mabari, the dwarf was openly defensive. "He's very well-trained. And he happens to be excellent at killing darkspawn. Much like Ser Pounce, I think."

Anders eyed her suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

Avalon scratched his cat between the ears, earning a contented purr. "You thought I wouldn't notice? I saw Ser Pounce in the Deep Roads. He really whacked that one hurlock on the nose!"

Anders stared at the Warden-Commander in disbelief. "That doesn't mean he could kill them!"

"It doesn't mean he couldn't, either. Remember, when I found him, he'd just survived a heavy darkspawn attack."

"He could have just -"

"His fur was clean, Anders." Avalon's intensely green eyes bored into him. "Even though there were corpses nearby, he was clean." She hesitated for the barest of moments. "I think he licked off the darkspawn blood."

And there it was. The truth Anders had feared from the beginning. He gazed into Ser Pounce-a-lot's eyes, which were gleaming a bright yellow in the moonlight. He meowed plaintively. "So he's going to have his life cut short too?" Anders asked bitterly.

"I don't know, honestly," Avalon admitted. "There hasn't been a lot of study on the effects of the Taint in animals. Most of them die outright."

"Oh, that's a cheery thought." Anders turned away to face the wall overlooking the keep. He tried to force the tears back out of his eyes. Why did everything he love always have to be taken away?

He flinched at Avalon's light touch on his back. She was too short to reach his shoulder, he knew. "I don't think you have to worry. Lancelot didn't get nightmares from the Archdemon. And yet, he seems to sense darkspawn." As though sensing he was the topic of conversation, the mabari barked down in the courtyard below.

"Great. At least he'll be able to sleep well before his untimely death." The face of Mr. Wiggums flashed into his head unbidden. Why had he ever told her about him? Anders pushed the thought and Avalon's hand aside.

The night air hung heavily around them, the only sound Lancelot's barking from below. "At least he hasn't been sick. Lancelot almost died. Ser Pounce couldn't've had as much as him or he would have fallen ill."

"He never asked for this."

Anders could practically hear her thinking next to him. He knew she was staring through him, but he could not bring himself to look at her. "I didn't either," she said, her voice barely audible. He whirled in surprise. Avalon stared down at the courtyard, her face unreadable.

"My younger brother, Bhelen...he tried to pit me against our older brother. Trian. He and I had always gotten along, but Trian and I hated each other. Bhelen told me that Trian was going to kill me and that the only way to stop him was to kill Trian first."

Avalon closed her eyes. Anders couldn't tell if she was reliving the past or trying to will it away. Probably both.

"I wouldn't do it. He was my brother. And even if he did try to kill me, I was the better fighter. I would have disarmed him and taken him to Father..." Her voice caught in her throat. "It didn't matter in the end. Bhelen killed Trian and framed me for it. I was exiled to the Deep Roads with nothing but my smallclothes and the small hope that I could find Duncan and the Grey Wardens. I did make it out of the Deep Roads with them, but Avalon Aeducan still died that day."

Avalon looked up at him, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. Anders had no idea that she could cry, let alone had anything to mourn. "I'm sorry. Really, I am. Never would have guessed you were like me."

"We didn't choose this life," she said, placing her hand softly on his arm. "Circumstances forced us to become something greater than ourselves." Avalon squinted up at him thoughtfully. "How much do you know of my people?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," Anders admitted.

"I won't bore you with tales of how I resolved the leadership disputes in both Orzammar and Ferelden or ended the Fifth Blight. It's enough to know that I did and that the dwarves see me as a living Paragon."

"So you're your own ancestor?"

Avalon chuckled. "In a way. It's the highest honor a dwarf can have."

"I didn't think that your people looked too kindly on surface dwarves," Anders said.

"They don't. But being a living Paragon has some advantages." Avalon pulled him down to her level so suddenly that Anders almost lost his balance. "I'll tell you a secret, though. I'd give it all up if I could get my life back."

"I don't blame you," he told her. "I'd want to be royalty too, if I could."

A flash of pain shot through Avalon's eyes. "No, I would never go back. I want my new life with Zevran. I want to know that I won't be leaving him in 30 years. I want that freedom." Avalon shrugged. "But none of that matters. I wouldn't have the life I have if I was truly free."

"So you're trapped too," Anders said. It was not a question.

Avalon shook her head. "This life was my choice. I chose to live."

"But you said you died."

"The old me died. I am not the same person I was then." She gazed intently into his eyes. Anders forced himself not to look away. "I would make the same choice every time. I will live my shortened life to the fullest." Avalon broke away from him. "Remember, you'll probably have company on your Calling with so many of you joining at the same time."

She was right. He had never once considered that. "What about you?"

Avalon hesistated. "Zev's promised to come with me."

Anders could not think of a single woman he'd been with who would have done the same for him. "You're lucky to have him."

She smiled. "You're lucky to have him," she said, nodding at Ser Pounce.

Anders looked down at his cat. Ser Pounce-a-lot mewed and licked his hand. "You're right. I am."


End file.
